The CA MDB Revised May

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. CA MDB: Summary -Primary version based on Ingres 3.0 -Other versions based on MS SQL Server, Oracle -Includes thousands of tables, views, indexes -Built by combining database models from many CA products

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. How do you build an MDB? -Single database instance -Use unique data types -Consistent schemas -Naming conventions -Stored procedures -Design patterns -Unified sets of tables for specific entities/objects

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Where is the MDB today? -Single database instance -Multiple definitions for some data elements

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Today (continued) -Mostly consistent schemas -Naming conventions -Stored procedures -One unified set of tables: for assets -eIAM stores applications’ authentication, authorization, access control information -May adopt industry standards (e.g. CIM) when possible -Single set of data owners, permissions

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Unified model for assets -Set of tables defined by developers for: -ServiceDesk -Unicenter NSM -Argis -Unicenter Asset Management -Entries made by one application visible to all -DB triggers used to update other tables, perform additional operations when assets are added.

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Revolutionary Change -Applications can access other app’s data directly -Simplifies reporting, analysis across apps -Multiple products can share database server

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. What the current MDB offers -Central Management -Standard Configurations -Standard Patch and Upgrade -A set of best practices for: -Scalability -Fault Tolerance -Securability (firewall and NAT) -MDB Federation

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. What the current MDB offers -Product Specific Federation -Core Bridge -Service Desk multiple MDBs, contact replication, and request broker -Desktop and Server Management hierarchical selective replication (2-tier but n-tier designed)

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. What the current MDB offers -An ERwin physical model-based collection of all tables & columns used by the CA products -A physical model that was assembled by combining DDL from various product teams -A breakdown of tables & columns into Subject Areas that map to the respective CA products -A partial definition of the relationships between the tables that comprise MDB

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. What the current MDB offers -A model that supports basic IP-address based asset reconciliation capabilities -A model that recognizes the central importance of asset and provides some modeling of the complexity of asset -Asset Logical model is documented -Tools used in conjunction with ADT allow asset import using the common object registration API (CORA)

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Summary -MDB is used in r11 products and value is huge -Most applications co-exist, with selective sharing -Several “best in class” products coordinate use of, and share data – especially for assets and users -Application-specific interfaces, communications are still used -Deployment options generally rich

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Common Misunderstandings… -MDB’s availability on a specific DB does not mean all applications support that DB -No common method/API for modifying all data in MDB -Not used consistently by all CA products -MDB is not a CMDB

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Asset Information Scenarios -ServiceDesk and Argis: -As Service Desk is about to enter data about an asset, the user can search through existing assets in the MDB, including those created by Argis. -Users can pick an existing asset and avoid data entry, or the addition of a duplicate entry. -NSM and UAM: -When Discovery runs, every object is registered as an asset. UAM is triggered by asset registration and can push out an agent to do a full hardware and software inventory. -Trigger provides the “glue” between "continuous discovery" and UAM. -Result: When an incident is recorded in ServiceDesk, SD will check registered assets, even those discovered by NSM, and the inventory info will be available as well.

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Limitations -No public (client) API for asset definition through the MDB -Definitions may change, or may rely upon undocumented behavior or business logic -Exception: UAPM packages a copy of ADT with CORA integration to add assets -Existing application-specific APIs should be used (for now)

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Deployment Choices -One product, one MDB instance -Multiple products, one MDB instance -Multiple products, multiple MDB instances

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Integration -Model level: normalized data -Database level - triggers, stored procedures -Application level -API, scripts -“Bridge” for CORe -Presentation level -Portal, Reporter, F&T

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Deployment Issues -Ingres issues -Performance – you architect in scalability -MDB issues -May not want information shared between applications; e.g. UAM assets become managed objects in NSM -Legally may be unable to put all data in one MDB -Application issues?

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. -Distributed installation and access services -Federation services -Abstraction Layers -Connectors -Platform and additional RDBMS Support -“Hot” upgrade services -Granular DDL definition/extension Moving Forward – MDB

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Moving Forward – MDB -Some Techie Details Under Study: -Reduce data type duplication -Normalize data model -Add common methods across applications for: -Extension of models -Entity addition, updates -Address MDB-specific issues: -Filtering of shared data -Replication vs. application distribution

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Moving Forward – MDB -More Techie Details Under Study : -A model that supports a central Asset registry to which all physical instances can register Assets -A model that supports a technical solution without a single point of failure -A model that can scale in a predictable manner -A model that supports a central authentication and consistent data authorization facility -A model documented at the entity and attribute level

© 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, services marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. Moving Forward – MDB -Even More Details Under Study : -A model in which non IP-address based assets are accommodated -A model that recognizes and registers assets with satisfactory performance -A model in which critical taxonomies (Owned versus Discovered Asset, Logical versus Physical Asset, Locations, Organizations, Contacts/Users, Services, and Configuration) are normalized